Meta exits RE100 renewable pledge group

Meta has left the RE100 corporate renewable electricity initiative after roughly a decade of membership, confirming its departure to TechCrunch as it accelerates a buildout of natural gas generation tied to AI data centers. TechCrunch reports the company has funded the construction of at least a dozen gas plants over the past year, and that one project is described as large enough to generate as much electricity as the entire state of South Dakota uses. Recharge News first reported the exit.

RE100, run by the Climate Group, has long functioned as a reputational shorthand for big companies claiming to run on renewable power. Meta previously told the initiative it would run its operations on renewable electricity by 2020, and it still says it is committed to matching its data center electricity use with “100% clean and renewable energy.” The mechanism matters: TechCrunch notes that Meta, like many large buyers, can make that claim through environmental attribute certificates, which allow a company to offset electricity used in one place by funding renewable generation somewhere else, often on an annual accounting basis.

The timing of Meta’s departure also coincides with the Climate Group tightening its guidance and requiring more rigorous reporting, according to TechCrunch. Meta did not explain why it left, and the Climate Group did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment. What has changed is the physical system Meta is attaching itself to. Behind-the-meter generation—gas plants built to serve a specific facility—reduces exposure to congested grids and uncertain interconnection queues, but it also locks in local combustion emissions even when a company is simultaneously buying renewable certificates elsewhere.

TechCrunch points to a 200-megawatt behind-the-meter gas plant announced last year in Ohio for one data center, followed by plans for three large gas plants in Louisiana to supply electricity to Meta’s Hyperion data center. In April, Meta announced funding for seven more gas plants for the same project, bringing the total to 10 plants generating 7.5 gigawatts, according to the report. The article also quantifies the local pollution profile of gas-fired power: a single 1-gigawatt data center running continuously on natural gas would emit nitrogen oxides, fine particulate matter, sulfur oxides and carbon monoxide each year—pollutants linked to respiratory and cardiovascular disease.

Other hyperscalers have also backed fossil fuel projects recently, TechCrunch notes, but it describes Meta as the largest investor in natural gas among its peers. Apple, Google and Microsoft remain in RE100, which has 444 members.

Meta’s clean-energy promise now rests on certificates and accounting periods, while the company’s newest capacity additions are steel, turbines and gas pipelines.